Posted on 03/22/2011 3:46:06 PM PDT by Neil E. Wright
About a week before the authors of a Center for a New American Security (CNAS) report warned that the most dangerous threat to the United States and its allies in the Western Hemisphere is the growth of powerful transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), the Marine Corps Operations Center received a disturbing OPREP-3 from the Marine Corps Air Station at Yuma, Ariz.
It was a situation report that counter-cartel authorities told Homeland Security Today could represent a troublesome new development in the smuggling of illegals into the US.
An OPREP-3 is an advisory on a specific significant event that is required to be issued to the highest levels of command.
And this OPREP-3 was certainly significant. It alerted that on March 11, 11 undocumented aliens whod managed to enter the US from Mexico had been caught wearing US Marine Corps Marine Pattern (MARPAT) desert digital Battle Dress Uniforms (BDUs).
But more troubling than that, when they were stopped by alert Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents near Campo, Calif., the 11 illegals and the three US citizens (who were wearing Marine woodland digital BDUs) traveling with them were driving an allegedly stolen vehicle with altered US Government license plates.
After investigation, it was determined that the van was stolen and plates altered , the OPREP-3 stated.
A separate intelligence report indicated that the van was actually a privately owned vehicle to which plates belonging to a one-ton cargo van registered to the US Marine Corps had been afixed.
According to the OPREP-3, which was provided to Homeland Security Today, the preliminary investigation of the incident determined that the original check out point of the vehicle [a plain white van] was the Marine Corps Air Station [at] Yuma."
Separate official reports on the incident indicated that 13 undocumented persons were actually apprehended.
Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Steven Pitts, spokesman for Border Patrol's San Diego Sector, confirmed to Homeland Security Today that [the apprehensions] did occur, yes, and that the undocumented aliens had "been processed for deportation."
The three US citizens apprehended with the illegals were processed on "alien smuggling charges," Pitts added.
Pitts confirmed that the San Diego Naval Criminal Investigative Service Southwest Field Office has taken the lead in investigating this incident, and that the investigation is on-going. He also said state and federal charges related to the allegedly stolen vehicle and altered license plates could be tacked on later.
"All I can say at this point is that the investigation is still active and NCIS does not comment on the details of ongoing investigations," NCIS Public Affairs Officer Ed Buice told Homeland Security Today.
According to other government sources familiar with the bust, the incident has attracted the attention of various intelligence components of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Intelligence Community. They explained that the alleged theft of US government license plates may have been deliberately stolen expressly for the purpose that they were used for: to serve as an apparent official government cover to transport seemingly official members of the US Marine Corps.
Both human- and narco-traffickers have frequently used what are called cloned vehicles to transport illegals and drugs. But these generally involve vehicles that have been carefully painted or otherwise made to look like an official company or even government vehicle.
Indeed, traffickers have brazenly used the same kind of vehicles that are used by US Border Patrol and other DHS agencies that they have artfully painted and outfitted to pass as an official Border Patrol or other DHS vehicle.
"The question, of course, remains how many cloned vehicles and with what/whom inside manage to get through," said G. Alan Ferguson, executive assistant to the chairman of the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers.
[Editors note: See the April 2008 Homeland Security Today cover report, Beware the Clones, and search HSToday.us for "cloned vehicles" for additional reporting on this matter]
But the use of an allegedly stolen vehicle with USG license plates may be the first time that human smugglers have risked using allegedly stolen US government vehicular property for transportation of illegals.
According to the OPREP-3, CBP agents stopped the van at the Campo, Calif. border check point (located about 28 miles east of CBP's San Diego Sector Headquarters in rural East San Diego County) and quickly discovered that no occupants possessed military ID cards. Furthermore, each of the individuals uniforms Velcro name tapes bore the name, "Perez.
The area of responsibility of the Campo Station is largely undeveloped and encompasses some of the most dangerous, rugged and isolated terrain in CBP's San Diego Sector. The stations responsibilities span from Campo, east to Boulevard, Calif. and north to Julian, Calif. The two checkpoints are located on Interstate 8 westbound and Old Highway 80 westbound near Pine Valley, Calif. An estimated 7,000 vehicles pass through these checkpoints each day, according to CBP.
The OPREP-3 further noted that CBP also stopped what was described as a trail vehicle that was carrying additional military uniforms and Staff Sergeant chevrons.
Following interrogations by Border Patrol, it was revealed that the van passed into the US from Mexicali, Mexico [at the CBP Calexico Port of Entry] and proceeded to Calexico, Calif. where the USMC uniforms were donned, according to the OPREP-3 on the incident.
The fact that all of the individuals apprehended were wearing US Marine Corps BDUs raises questions about the possibility that well resourced terrorists could do the same thing, but with much more sophisticated alacrity, like being able to produce legitimate military IDs and driving a government vehicle that isnt stolen.
Its much more likely that in a circumstance like this involving terrorists in the midst of an active plot that they would simply kill any law enforcement officials who stopped them and continue on with their attack plans.
In June 2007, three Texas National Guard soldiers on duty along the US-Mexico border were arrested on charges of smuggling illegal immigrants. CBP agents had stopped the white Ford passenger van that was being driven by one of the Guardsmen for routine inspection along Interstate 35 near Cotulla, Texas. The agents found 24 illegal aliens in the back.
In Mexico, it's not at all uncommon for legitimate law enforcement to encounter members of TCOs either wearing or having in their possession Mexican military and law enforcement uniforms and other official gear and equipment, including military munitions.
In fact, instances in which uncorrupted Mexican law enforcement have encountered or engaged TCO henchmen dressed in police or military uniforms driving official vehicles have steadily risen in recent years - coinciding with the TCOs ability to corrupt and recruit members of the military and state and local law enforcement.
In their just released CNAS report, Security Through Partnership: Fighting Transnational Cartels in the Western Hemisphere, authors Robert Killebrew and Matthew Irvine wrote that transnational cartel networks cannot be defeated in just one area, one border or one country. These organizations conduct activities throughout the region and therefore are able to adapt quickly to new security measures taken to counter them.
Continuing, Killebrew and Irvine stated that a reinvigorated partnership between the United States and Colombia, Mexico and the nations of Central America is the most effective means to attack this transnational threat and promote the rule of law and justice throughout the region.
Killebrew and Irvine recommended that the United States and its regional partners prioritize attacking cartels.
While mitigating the effects of illegal drugs is an important policy issue in the concerned countries, the United States and its regional partners should target the cartel networks throughout the region as the primary threat, they stated, adding that the United States and its partners stand the best chance of securing the region against the most dangerous cartels by deploying a regional security strategy, rather than directing efforts to just one area, one border or one country.
America! It's about
Fine then, shoot them on the spot.
And these miscreants are going to Disneyland next?
Now they are impersonating U.S. Marines. I don't know what it will take for people to wake up and get rid of the treasonous politicians who allow illegals to commit crime after crime and accuse anyone who tries to protect our great country of racism, etc. As long as we have the current politicians things will only continue to get worse.
Now they are impersonating U.S. Marines. I don't know what it will take for people to wake up and get rid of the treasonous politicians who allow illegals to commit crime after crime and accuse anyone who tries to protect our great country of racism, etc. As long as we have the current politicians things will only continue to get worse.
The border looks like a good training ground for special forces trainees.. They could clean up the border and gain serious skills besides..
This is grounds for being shot on sight by the Geneva Convention.
Those are probably the only clothes those poor illegal immigrants could afford. Sarcasm off now.
Where are mobile firing squads when you need them?
They will probably get an indie film movie deal and a book about it plus all the handouts with being illegal. I would love to be wrong. Their feelings must come first.
Wonder what else has come through that has been caught but even more so what hasn’t?
It would also be great wall building, wire stringing, minefield laying, setting up overlapping fields of fire, and high intensity searchlight training too. All kinds of learning experiences.
“Fine then, shoot them on the spot.”
Actually, we’d be fully justified in doing that. Foreign invaders wearing the uniform of our military, they are subject to execution. In pretty much every country, that’s been the accepted way of dealing with such behavior for a couple thousand years, at least.
A firing squad would do the job better...
But, But we were filming NCIS Los Angeles.
Thirteen “Marines” all named Perez at the Mexican border in the same van....? Nothing suspicious about that.
something, in my gut, is telling me this is more serious than the printed word on paper. And I doubt the destination of these individual perps was known. This is a serious matter worthy of a serious investigation and I doubt a serious investigation will be done. Do I think there is something more here than this report. I definitely do!
Con. Allen West had the BEST idea on what to do with the Border Patrol. Put them under the DOD. We have thousands of returning troops already trained, with exceptional skills to step into the role.
The Mexican government even puts out brochures for ‘immigrants’ to help them sneak into the U.S.
http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2010/may/29/lamar-smith/smith-says-mexico-hands-out-brochures-showing-migr/
And they would be much better motivated to get rid of those attacking our country. Where do I sign up?
The fallback position was - “I’m an illegal.”
They are spies and must be executed.
Thank god Janet has secured the border.
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